This invention relates to a female terminal used in an electric circuit and also to a method of producing such a terminal.
One conventional female terminal for mounting on a connector used for the connection of an electric circuit is formed by a method in which a sheet of metal such as copper and brass is blanked, and then this blank is bent to form a body portion, and a resilient contact piece is mounted within this body portion to provide the female terminal for receiving a mating male terminal. Particularly, there has been proposed such a female terminal of a two-component type in which the resilient contact piece is made of a highly-resilient metal sheet different from a material of the body portion. For example, Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 58-87789 discloses a method of producing a female electrical connection terminal T as shown in FIG. 8.
In the production of the female electrical connection terminal T, a blank P (FIG. 9A), formed by blanking a sheet of metal such as copper and brass, is bent along broken lines L to form a body portion a. Small piece portions b', c' and d' are formed on the blank P, and retaining holes e are formed through this blank. The blank is bent to form the body portion a of the female electrical connection terminal T having insulator clamping portions b, conductor clamping portions c and a tubular portion d, as shown in FIG. 8.
Then, a separate resilient contact piece f (FIG. 9B) is mounted within the tubular portion d, with end portions g1 of retaining portions g engaged respectively in the retaining holes e in the body portion a.
Referring to the process of bending the blank P and mounting the resilient contact piece f, the small piece portions d' are first bent to extend obliquely from a base plate portion h, and then the resilient contact piece f is solenoid valve set in position, with the end portions g1 of the retaining portions g disposed in registry with the retaining holes e in the body portion a respectively, as shown in FIG. 10. Then, the small piece portions d' are further bent perpendicularly relative to the base plate portion, so that the end portions g1 of the retaining portions g are engaged respectively in the retaining holes e, as shown in FIG. 11. Then, the small piece portions d' are bent by applying pressing forces W to distal end portions d.sub.1 ' thereof, thereby forming the tubular portion d, as shown in FIG. 12.
At this time, however, side walls d.sub.2 of the tubular portion d are curved under the influence of the pressing forces W, so that the end portions of the retaining portions g may be disengaged from the retaining holes e, respectively, thus causing the resilient contact piece f to be dislodged. Thus, there is encountered a problem that defective products, having the incompletely-mounted resilient contact piece f, can be produced .